Britain’s oldest mum is believed to Sue Tollefsen, who gave birth at 57 to daughter Freya

I’ve tried to get my head around wanting a child at that age. I’m menopausal now and finally — as I approach my 50th — my maternal desires have vanished. I no longer look at a pregnant woman or a newborn and coo with longing and hope.

There is a very good reason for that — it’s biological.

Our bodies are not designed to have babies in our 60s, and even if this child was conceived via a surrogate, it does not change the fact that women’s falling fertility as we pass 35 is because we are not as capable of coping with the demands of motherhood.

At the age of 49, with my youngest aged eight-and-a-half, I fully admit that I don’t have the energy (and perhaps even patience) that I had when I had my firstborn at 27.

But perhaps not everyone is a hands-on mum. Some people have people who “do” motherhood for them.

How, for example, will this 64-year-old woman be able to run after a toddler when her own joints might be aching and creaking? Will little Pia be forced to push her mother around in a wheelchair when she’s ten because Mummy struggles with her mobility?

RELATED STORIES

HEART OF GOLD

Stranger who bought £159 train ticket for student who was in floods of tears after losing hers is revealed as dad-of-two nurse

CHARGE ON THE CARDS

Are your nearest cash machines about to start charging for withdrawals?

POOR RECEPTION

Head's plan to stop pupils using phones in lessons by jamming signal is scuppered because it is ILLEGAL

Exclusive

'I'VE NEVER FELT SO FRIGHTENED'

Brits break down as they arrive back in UK from Gambia as Senegal prepares to 'invade'